To mark the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 inauguration, 10,000 specially-produced Lincoln cent kits will be given away free by rare coin dealer Paul Hollis of Mandeville, Louisiana. Each kit contains an illustrated brochure accompanied by four coins, one each of the commemorative Lincoln cent reverse designs issued for circulation by the United States Mint in 2009.

“March 4 is the sesquicentennial of Lincoln’s first inauguration on the eve of the Civil War. The giveaway will total 40,000 Lincoln cents to raise public awareness of the anniversary and promote coin collecting,” explained Hollis.

“On March 1, I’ll be sending out 1,500 of the four-coin sets to randomly-selected households in the New Orleans suburb of Mandeville. The remainder will be given away to civic groups, schools, coin clubs and individuals nationwide who want them while supplies last.”

Each set contains an example of the four Lincoln cent design themes produced for the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial One Cent Program that marked the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln cent. The reverse side designs are:

“The full-color brochure was produced with advanced printing techniques that incorporated embossing — including the raised likeness of a 2009 Lincoln cent obverse on the mailing envelope — engraved imagery, foil printing, metallic inks and other coatings,” said Hollis. “It makes history, literally, more colorful.”

The informative brochure’s text reads in part: “For more than a century, American’s pockets and purses have held a tangible tribute to that (Lincoln’s) legacy: the humble — but noble — Lincoln cent. Introduced in 1909, this penny now has been produced longer than any other coin in U.S. history — and in greater numbers than all other coins, from every country on Earth and all of human history, put together.”

Award-winning numismatic writer and editor, Ed Reiter, assisted with creation of the text.

Two years ago, Hollis launched a project to give away one million of the Lincoln bicentennial cents, including handing out hundreds of thousands during Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans.

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